


A Mall AU

by Dreamy_Ideal



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Drabble Collection, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pining, Polyamory, boys not knowing what to do with their feelings, eventually, friends I don't know what to tag this as
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-29
Updated: 2018-07-29
Packaged: 2019-06-18 08:47:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15482058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dreamy_Ideal/pseuds/Dreamy_Ideal
Summary: 'okay I'm now way too into barely gives a fuck security ksoo'aka dreamy wants to write mall au scenes but doesn't quite want to do a whole fic





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi there! :D Welcome to some more 'dreamy wants to write but doesn't want to write a whole longfic' shenanigans. Basically this is another collection of not fics but they're all in a mall au universe that happened when I was talking with a friend on twitter.
> 
> [ This](https://twitter.com/toosooksoo/status/1012099032624324608/) is that thread and all the context you need in case you're curious!
> 
> There are multiple pairings going on in here but I'll tag those only when they show up. It's mainly going to be chanxingsoo nonsense though.

“Since when do you close up?”

Yixing looked back after he finished locking up the store. Kyungsoo hung nearby watching him. “Since my laptop broke and I had to buy a new one. I’m picking up all the extra shifts I can. Surprisingly everyone is willing to give me their closing shift.”

“And pass up on this?” Kyungsoo gestured around him. There was nothing going on, the mall had cleared out all the customers a half an hour ago, but that was the point. No crowds, no music over the speakers, and Yixing even suspected that he was one of the last to close up on his section of the second floor. The mall was a little creepy after hours, at least to him. Maybe to Kyungsoo too since he pointed it out. “Wonder why?”

“Me too.” Yixing gathered his backpack from the floor, shifting it onto his shoulder with a sigh. “But it’s just for the month. And it’s convenient for me. Tao is working late shifts so I don’t have to waste gas going home and coming back to pick him up.”

Kyungsoo fell into step beside Yixing as he walked to the stairs. “You know Jongin works at that mall now right?” Yixing gasped and stopped. Kyungsoo nodded, Yixing’s expression giving away what he was asking in his head. “Yea. The library had an opening and he went for it.” Yixing gasped again.

“Tao goes to the library to wait for me to pick him up.” Kyungsoo shook his head.

“He might not run into him then, Jongin works days. But who knows.” Yixing began to laugh as they descended the stairs.

“Tao just has a problem dealing with crushes. It’s cute, but also such a mess.”

“Well he needs it together. All he’s doing is stressing Jongin out. That might get you a boyfriend in dramas but it won’t work in real life.”

“You watch dramas?”

“It’s literally in my job description. Sit and watch dramas, inspect them for quality.”

It was empty upstairs but there were more people on the ground floor, small clusters of employees dragging themselves towards the parking garage. Kyungsoo stopped beside the little cart he drove around sometimes that was parked not to far from the stairs. In the back of it sat one person, dressed in nike gear, their head in their lap. “Do you want a ride to the garage?” Kyungsoo asked. Yixing quickly agreed, too tired to pretend that the walk to his car would be manageable. He made himself comfortable in the seat beside the driver’s as Kyungsoo posed the same question to everyone else that passed them by. Two more people joined the tired soul in the back but the rest just wished Kyungsoo a good night as they passed by.

“Stick close together,” Kyungsoo called after them all. “And all the alarms in the garage are working now, use them if you have to. And don’t just sit in your car if something’s wrong with it call me.”

Yixing smiled watching the scene. The other employees reacted like they were getting a very familiar lecture from their parents, thanking Kyungsoo for fussing but continuing on their way. “Do you do this every night?” He asked when Kyungsoo got into the driver’s seat and powered up the car.

“Yea. The world’s dangerous nowadays. I don’t want anyone to follow up a 12 hour shift from hell by getting stabbed before they can have a drink.” This seemed so much like Kyungsoo. He would turn a blind eye to theft in a heartbeat but cared so much for everyone’s safety that he went out of his way to escort everyone to the garage and make sure they left the building okay. “What are you smiling about?”

He thought about what he said to Chanyeol a couple of days before, what Kyungsoo overheard. He missed being around Kyungsoo, he really did. Yixing shook his head and turned his gaze forward, the rest of the ride to the garage quiet.

When they reached the parking structure the passengers in the back thanked Kyungsoo and shuffled towards their cars. Yixing did the same, getting out of the car and going around to Kyungsoo’s side to thank him.

“Listen, I know you’re dating Chanyeol, but we can still be friends right?” Yixing was stupid to think that Kyungsoo would be unaffected by the little withdraw he had after his talk with Chanyeol. Kyungsoo looked up at him...hopefully? “I mean I am capable of talking to you without flirting.”

Yixing laughed, biting the edge of his lip. “You can, but I don’t think I can help it.” He stepped forward so he could press a kiss to Kyungsoo’s forehead. Kyungsoo’s eyes were wide behind his glasses when Yixing pulled back. “Thank you for the ride, but I think I’ll be okay after this.” Not wanting to wait for a reply Yixing shouldered his bag and made his way to his car.

\--

Jongin looked up from his book as he heard the front door open and shut. “Hey, there’s--there’s lipstick on your forehead.” Kyungsoo didn’t say anything. He dropped his bag on the floor before dropping himself face down onto the couch.

\--

Minseok recognized the number on phone as the number from the sephora at the mall closest to theirs. “It’s Minseok,” he said instead of his usual customer greeting. He sighed as the voice started speaking. He pinched the bridge of his nose. “No Yixing you can’t transfer--what is going on at that mall?”


	2. Chapter 2

“Good morning Kyungsoo.”

Kyungsoo hadn’t walked by the Sephora that morning with the intent of seeing Yixing. He wondered how many times he was going to be surprised by seeing him in his own workplace. Kyungsoo stopped, more than happy to abandon his routine pre-opening rounds. “Hey Yixing.”

Yixing had closed the night before. Just like he said, he walked to the parking garage on his own after his one ride from Kyungsoo, but Kyungsoo saw him as he was waiting on his usual riders. He didn’t expect Yixing to open up the following day too. He walked up to the vanity that Yixing stood in front of. His hair was clipped back as he worked on his makeup.

“You were here last night too,” Yixing said when Kyungsoo sat on the stool next to the client booth.

“Yea. I told them I don’t work double shift but technically working one night then the next morning doesn’t count.” Kyungsoo rolled his eyes. One day he’d be done his job and dancing his way out the door. “What about you? Didn’t you work all day yesterday?”

“Yea,” Yixing said with a sigh. Kyungsoo didn’t ask him why; he assumed Yixing was still in the same situation as before.

“When will we get rid of money and go back to the barter system?” Yixing laughed.

“Never, I hope. Didn’t they used to barter with chickens? I wouldn’t be able to stand it, afraid of my own money.” Kyungsoo chuckled a little before they fell into silence. He didn’t move, glued to watching Yixing while he finished his eyeshadow and did his eyebrows.

Eventually he put down the pencil and reached out to grab a tube of lipstick. Kyungsoo’s gaze fell down to Yixing’s lips as he carefully rubbed some on. When he stopped Kyungsoo looked up and his heart practically jumped from his chest when he saw Yixing looking back at him. At once he looked down to his lap. He couldn’t even say what Yixing’s expression had been, he was so quick to break eye contact.

“Are you going to have a day off soon?” He needed to fill the air with something and luckily he did want to ask that.

“Friday and Saturday,” he replied. “One voluntary and one ordered. Joohyun wants me to rest but...I probably won’t.”

“Better to be tired at home then.”

Kyungsoo looked out of the corner of his eye when he heard a tap and saw that Yixing put his lipstick back down. Feeling it was safe to look up again, he went back to quietly watching as Yixing unclipped his bangs and fussed with his hair. When he was done with that he reached for a black tube that Kyungsoo recognized as eyeliner. His eyes went a little wide as Yixing lifted towards his mouth instead of his eyelids.

“What’s that for?”

“I’m putting my mole back.” Yixing pressed a small dot near the corner of his lip. “I’m getting back into the habit of it. I like my mole.”

“I like watching you do your makeup.”

Kyungsoo hoped that Yixing didn’t catch his verbal stumble as he caught himself from saying that he liked the mole by Yixing’s lip as well. Yixing just smiled and said thank you. “You do nails too right?”

Yixing looked taken back by that. But his surprise quickly gave way to another smile. “Yes. I don’t do my own as much now because of time but, I like to do them. Even more than makeup.”

“I’d like to see that,” Kyungsoo said as he stood up. He took a good look at his right hand. Honestly he barely paid attention to his own. As long as there was no dirt under his nails then he considered them fine enough. Yixing leaned in to look as well.

“You should let me do yours sometime. Just a clear gloss. I think people should take care of their hands.”

“Sure.” Normally Kyungsoo would have left it there, the invitation hanging in the air with every other invitation that passed between them. But as Yixing straightened up the vanity he said, “I’m off Saturday too, if you want to…”

When Yixing’s smile reached his eyes they glittered in a way made Kyungsoo’s heart race. The list of things about Yixing that didn’t have an effect on him was getting worryingly short.

“Yes. Come over.”

\--

Kyungsoo balanced his plate of egg tarts in one hand so he could press the buzzard for Yixing’s apartment.

“Kyungsoo?”

He grinned just a bit. After glancing around and not finding any cameras he said, “how did you know?”

“Good guess.”

He hurried for the door so he didn’t miss Yixing buzzing him in. He was waiting for Kyungsoo by the entrance to his floor in his stairwell. At once he took notice of the hoodie he was wearing. Yixing was drowning in it; it reached past his knees and covered up any shorts he may have been wearing. The sleeves were pushed up but fell back down as soon as he moved to let Kyungsoo into the hallway. He wondered if the hoodie was Chanyeol’s.

He couldn’t stop thinking about Chanyeol. Kyungsoo told himself he was at Yixing’s apartment as a friend so there was no need to obsess but, well, if only obsessing was that easy to stop.

Yixing’s apartment was small. It would have been best described as cramped if it weren’t for all of Yixing’s homey decorations giving it a cozy feeling. “If you were a client I would have a table set up, but you can sit on my bed.”

“I’m not special enough for the table?”

Kyungsoo spent the next five minutes apologizing for his badly delivered joke and promising Yixing that it was in fact a joke while Yixing assured him that he was special enough to sit anywhere in his apartment even if there were only so many places to sit. Thankfully after those five minutes they were able to laugh at themselves and the whole thing and Kyungsoo found himself quickly relaxing.

They put aside the egg tarts for later and settled on Yixing’s bed. Yixing brought out a tray for Kyungsoo to put his hands on and another one filled with his tools. He turned on the TV for Kyungsoo to watch but as soon as he noticed Kyungsoo was more interested in watching him work he turned it off and put on music.

They barely talked which was fine. Better than fine. Kyungsoo appreciated that Yixing didn’t feel the need to constantly fill in the silences around them. Jongin pointed out that it was hard for Kyungsoo to find friends because instead of looking for who he could best talk to he was always looking for who he could best be quiet around. And Yixing was someone he had no problems being comfortably quiet around.

It wasn’t like he needed to talk to get anything from the interaction anyway. He got to take in all the little working quirks Yixing had. He didn’t talk to himself but he did mouth words occasionally as he trimmed Kyungsoo’s cuticles. He alternated between biting the corner of one side of his lip and licking at the other. He hummed along out of tune to the music in the background. Sometimes he lifted Kyungsoo’s hand and looked at it like he was offended by what he saw. Kyungsoo didn’t know why but it didn’t stop it from being unbearably cute.

That list of things about Yixing that didn’t have an effect on him was shrinking before his eyes.

“You really like this huh?”

Yixing nodded. “When I have time I practice a lot with acrylics. Fake nails. Maybe one day I can open a shop of my own and work for myself.”

“I hope you do.” Yixing whole energy was different as he worked on his nails. He was obviously so much happier. The idea of him getting to leave his retail job to do nails all the time warmed Kyungsoo like it was his own happiness he was going after.

“You wouldn’t miss me at the mall?”

“I think you’ll be a really popular nail person,” Kyungsoo said. “You might need security. I’ll come work for you.” Yixing laughed brightly.

“Alright, I’ll save a job for you. When I work on really famous clients you can guard them for me.”

It was a nice little thought, working at some place Yixing ran. Kyungsoo wouldn’t care what job he did. He figured he’d be happy to sweep up toenail clippings and restock polish remover for Yixing, much happier than doing anything at the mall.

The music cut off as Yixing polished Kyungsoo’s nails. The room filled with the sound of a default ringtone. Yixing glanced over at the screen before letting go of Kyungsoo’s hand to answer it. “You’re awake?” He balanced the phone on his shoulder so he could continue with his polish. Kyungsoo focused very hard on his hands but it was hard not to overhear the conversation when it was the only other sound in the room. “I’m at home. Kyungsoo is over right now...let me ask.”

Yixing looked at him. “It’s Chanyeol. Is it okay if he comes over?”

Kyungsoo didn’t want to think too much about why he was being asked the question nor why the answer wasn’t as simple as it needed to be. He settled on a sure, which Yixing echoed back to Chanyeol. “He says he’ll bring some food for us.” Kyungsoo nodded, a little tense, trying so hard not to think. He focused on Yixing as he started to hum to the music that played again. 

When Yixing was finished he cleared away his trays and brought back Kyungsoo’s egg tarts. They ate while Kyungsoo’s nails dried, Yixing alternating between feeding Kyungsoo bites and taking bites for himself. After a bit Yixing took both of Kyungsoo’s hands in his to inspect his work.

Kyungsoo thought he held up really well. Yixing held his hand several times during the afternoon and his pulse never shot up (by very much).

“You have to take better care of your hands. If I give you some stuff would you use it?”

“I’ll try for a week. After that I can’t make any promises.”

Yixing laughed as he got up again. When he sat back down he had a bottle of lotion in his hands. He squeezed some on the back of Kyungsoo’s hand before rubbing it in. The bit of tension that crept back in him was swept away.

“Do treat all your clients this well?” Kyungsoo asked as Yixing moved to his other hand.

“Just the really special ones.”

Yixing’s smile was a little softer when he looked at him then. Oh, well, there was Kyungsoo’s pulse shooting up. Even after the lotion was rubbed into his hand Yixing held on, rubbing circles into the back of his hand with his thumb.

“Do you have a lot of those?”

“Just two.”

Two. Chanyeol. The owner of the hoodie Yixing was wearing Chanyeol. Chanyeol the guy in one of the pictures Kyungsoo spotted on Yixing’s desk. Yixing’s boyfriend Chanyeol. Yixing had a boyfriend. Yixing had a boyfriend and there Kyungsoo was, sitting across from him, his heart racing in a not at all just a friend manner.

Kyungsoo tried not to think before but now he was thinking and he didn’t like the thoughts. He especially didn’t like what he started thinking when Yixing leaned closer towards him.

“I have to go.”

Kyungsoo pulled his hand back from Yixing and got to his feet. He didn’t run to the door only because there weren’t too many steps between it and the bed. Yixing called for him a few times but Kyungsoo couldn’t look at him. He left, closing the door quickly behind him.

His pulse was racing but it threatened to stop when he opened the door to the stairwell and found himself face to hoodie with Chanyeol. “Kyungsoo, are you leaving already?”

“Yes,” he said quickly, looking down at his feet.

“Oh. Do you want to take some food wi--”

Kyungsoo cut him off with a hurried no before pushing past him. He heard Chanyeol call for him and he swore he heard Yixing’s voice as well but Kyungsoo didn’t stop. He didn’t stop moving until he was back at his apartment and in his room.

“Kyungsoo?”

Jongin’s voice came from the other side of his bedroom door. When he didn’t answer he called again. “Are you okay?” Kyungsoo didn’t move from his bed.

“I’m fucking up.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :D I don't know about yall but I'm in my feelings


End file.
